Internet response to Bengaluru woman ordering “cockroach” in sandwich from Zomato: “Nothing new.”

Trusting any meal purchased from restaurants is becoming harder and harder because of the extent of food contamination from outside sources. The situation is grave, with reports ranging from customers finding insects and other impurities in their meals to street sellers purposefully contaminating food with body fluids. A lady in Bengaluru discovered a cockroach in her sandwich that she had purchased from Zomato, which adds to this unsettling pattern.

The disturbing experience was documented on the Reddit site by user @NomadicGeek1, who posted a picture of a little cockroach at the edge of the sandwich’s wrapping on the “Bangalore” forum. In the comments, the original poster said, “I also did eat one piece and only noticed when it started moving,” and inquired as to whether they need to see a physician since they had already eaten some of the food before discovering the cockroach on an uneaten piece and throwing it away.

Comments on the page made it clear that these kinds of things happen, regrettably, often. “Best stay away from any cloud kitchens on Swiggy/Zomato,” a poster said. Standards and quality do not apply to restaurants. Someone else said, “I’ve discovered cockroaches on several occasions—in the soup I ordered from Cloud Kitchen and in the biryani I ordered from the renowned Nandini restaurant.” All I know is that the prudent course of action is to abstain from eating outdoors and that very few of them practice good hygiene.

“Guys, stop eating sandwiches outside,” said a third commenter. Create your own at home. Expensive as hell. Making one only costs Rs. 15, and they sell them for anywhere between Rs. 100 and Rs. 200. I recently quit having meals outdoors. I no longer even yearn for anything. They are packing meals and putting too much crap outdoors.

In fact, is it time to reconsider eating out entirely in light of the growing worries about food safety?